“We are a small group, our friends traveled with you last year and were absolutely happy — can we have an exclusive date just for us?”

We are receiving requests like this more and more often, and there are two key aspects that, as a company, we must take very seriously. The first is the continued importance of word of mouth, even after so many years. It certainly brings positive economic results, but it is also a powerful indicator that our ongoing efforts to improve our standards year after year are truly paying off. For those of us who work with passion, it is an enormous source of energy.

The second aspect is more technical and organizational. By June of the current season, the planning of dates for the following year is almost entirely completed. From August onward, the work on private tour requests begins — and these add a significant number of additional tours to our schedule. They are increasing steadily, largely because the number of returning guests continues to grow.

These are often newly designed tours, meaning they lack standardization and therefore require a high level of expertise and commitment. In many cases, especially when it comes to repeat guests, they take place outside Sardinia and even outside Italy.

For those managing the company, the challenge is twofold: ensuring the same high quality on a completely new product, often with significant logistical complexity; and at the same time maintaining the unchanged quality of the tours already in our catalog.

How do we handle this at Sardinia Cycling? Years of experience have shown us that ambitious projects and complex challenges require not only expertise, but also the ability for the on-the-ground staff to make the right decision — in the best interest of both the guest and the company — in every situation.

The strategies to achieve this goal are essentially two: involving the staff directly in the design of the tour, and assigning that same staff to the execution of the project.

This, of course, assumes that the staff has the skills to actively contribute to the design phase and that this happens during the off-season, when we can work together as a team on planning and development.

I know — it sounds simple. And as a guest, no one really thinks about the strategic decisions behind a private tour in a brand-new destination that runs perfectly smoothly, as if we had already done it dozens of times.

And here we return to the starting point: to face ambitious new challenges and such important market changes, the staff must be trained, involved, and accountable. That may not be the typical profile of seasonal staff — but it is exactly the profile of ours.